What Pupils and Staff are Reading this Summer: 2

 As we approach the end of the summer term, PGS pupils and staff reveal what they are planning to read over the summer holiday.  

Isaac Mead 

Starting my Summer off with some cheery existential reading I’m currently enjoying Jean-Paul Sartre’s ‘Nausea’ and plan on expanding on this thematically through Albert Camus’ ‘The Outsider’ (the themes of both seem very relevant following a year where everyone possibly contemplated the meaning of life whilst locked inside). Following on from the previous Murakami novels I have greatly enjoyed, I can’t wait to start ‘Kafka on the Shore’, which is said to be surreal like many of his other works and also somewhat existentialist. Poetry-wise I hope to get through more of Plath’s ‘Ariel’ collection and start ‘Love is a Dog from Hell’ by Charles Bukowski, which I have discovered to be rather graphic after flicking through it… Finally I’ve picked up some books from my grandad’s old bookshelf and came across Joyce’s ‘Ulysses’, a book I understand to be extremely challenging, so, to ease myself in I’m planning on starting with his short story collection ‘Dubliners’ and familiarise myself with his style of writing. I can’t wait to see how Ireland is depicted in both as it is a place I frequently visited up until COVID struck and haven’t been able to get back to since. 

Ben Goad (BCTG)

I enjoyed a rare treat visit to the PGS library last week and took the opportunity to grab a copy of Surely you’re joking, Mr. Feynman by the legendary physicist Richard Feynman and his drumming partner Ralph Leighton. The very fact that a nobel prize winning physicist should have a drumming partner suggests that he was not exactly a usual character and I’m looking forward to reading about the various scrapes and unusual situations he got himself into. He is a bit of hero of mine as an incredible teacher as much as being a physicist and if you haven’t watched him, do take a visit to YouTube. Just hearing his New “Yoik” accent is a pleasure in itself.

My eldest recommended The Master and Margarita by Mikhail Bulgakov, and I’m saving the last few chapters for the first few weeks of the summer, it is completely nuts but curiously compelling and I’m loving the way he writes about the last few hours of Jesus’ life focussing on the character of Pontius Pilate and making the reader feel that this may be the only ‘true’ part of the story.

Finally, after having seriously enjoyed Shadow of the Wind by Carlos Ruiz Zafón (in translation I’m afraid but nevertheless, wonderfully written) I was overjoyed to discover that it was the first in a series of three books. So The Angel’s Game and The Prisoner of Heaven will be in my bag when we get around to packing. My mental image of Barcelona will now have been created by a combination of George Orwell writing about his experience of fighting in the civil war there and these books, I suspect that it is thoroughly distorted but I’ll let you know!..

David Payne (DMLP)

I have a huge pile of books that I would like to read this summer. I suspect that I won’t manage them all so will prioritise the following: 

'Ego is the Enemy' - Ryan Holiday. This is a recommendation from a fellow Deputy Head in another school. I am told that it is a book about resilience, and overcoming doubt in order to achieve success.

Mindset: How you can fulfil your potential –  Dr Carol S.Dweck. I have been meaning to read this for years and am finally committed to do so this summer. It considers the difference between the fixed or growth mindset and I intend to read it with a view  to considering its implications for our approach to continued school improvement.

Shackleton: By Endurance We Conquer - Professor Michael Smith. Shackleton is a fascinating man. Brilliant yet flawed, inspirational but troubled. I have read a number of works on his life, and look froward to this one – a gift to me from a friend who knows I am interested in his tale and that of those his life touched.

I will almost certainly read something altogether less significant, but very pleasurable: a Rebus novel based in Edinburgh, a city I love; or a Harry Hole tale that weaves together the paradox between the wealth and beauty of Oslo with gritty aspects of its underworld.